Working With Me

I see psychotherapy as a medicine of truth telling and illuminating hard-to-see connections. We are in it together, excavating the terrain of your story and your experience as a human being. I look at the map we weave in our conversations and try to see the threads and connections in your story.  We are staying curious and holding all the complexity. I work with my clients cooperatively and with awareness of my own power. I am deeply devoted to relationships + community building. We will grapple with your experience, together.

I move pretty quickly to make connections within your story.  I’m irreverent and  non-traditional, which includes plenty of swearing. When I think about your struggles, I also think about the systems we are embedded in and how those are contributing to the constellation. I think about how living in a time of economic disparity, climate collapse, and political division + discord impacts our experiences as humans. I consider all our layers of privilege + oppression and how they impact our collective experiences of this world.

Who Are You

You are ready to work. You have done some therapy, maybe a lot of it. At this time, you aren’t interested in passive, reflective therapy that does not move you forward. You are open, forthright, and not extremely distrustful at the outset (aside from the very reasonable time it takes to get to know a counselor). You want feedback and are open to creatively joining forces to meet your goals. You are willing to tell me when I don’t have it quite right. You are a verbal processor and a relational being. You want to get in there and you want someone to be a dynamic thought partner with you in the process!

What I’m Not

I’m not  *just* a listener. I am not slow-moving in the work and I’m not extremely gentle although I am fiercely compassionate. I am not particularly somatic in the work I do. I’m not afraid to be real with you. I’m not afraid to share parts of myself when that makes sense. I have never been a traditional professional as I came to this work with deep critiques of it which has informed my approach over the last two decades.

Issues I Work With

People who are ready to process their trauma: Perhaps you’ve talked alot about your trauma in traditional talk therapy but are still distressed by memories, avoiding triggers, and you are living on high alert. Perhaps you are continuously distrustful of people you want to build strong relationships with. I use Narrative Exposure Therapy to treat PTSD + Complex PTSD.  NET creates a strong container with beautiful rituals embedded within it. We will work with your trauma narratives directly using exposure to help you move forward with your life. Read about NET here. I’m glad to do NET with you as an add on/adjunctive to your current psychotherapy work or as a shorter-term treatment.

Fellow mental health providers: I love to support my peers in addressing their mental health. Most of us have lived experience that informs our work (that’s why most of us are here, right?). Many of us have trauma to process, depression to manage, and complicated layers to sort out. Working on yourself or processing your own trauma history can make you a more effective therapist. 

People who are struggling with living in this world and are ready to work on it: Maybe you don’t have a particular diagnosis aside from existential despair. You are ready to work with how to move through and and live side by side with the current layers of systemic challenge. You are seeking support for engaging more community care in your life, more transformative and liberatory actions, and ways to live your values despite the fuckery that is abound.

Please follow this link to learn about your rights and protections against Surprise Medical Billing HERE.

GROUPS

Group Work IS Community Care!

COMMUNITY CARE GROUP 2023

SCREENING & RATES:
I’m not currently taking new clients (winter 2024).

My services are self-pay/out of pocket. I no longer take insurance. I do not provide superbills or engage with insurance companies. I’m glad to take your HSA/FSA.
60 min session fee: $185

Masks required for in person sessions
My office is located at 631 NE 102ND AVE, Portland, OR 97220